A large number of guest teachers employed on contractual basis in Government schools on Saturday gathered outside Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s residence on Mathura Road and started shouting anti-Government slogans. Angry with the AAP Government, guest teachers also stopped Sisodia’s car after which the police intervened and detained the protesters.
Some of the protesters alleged that they were manhandled by the cops. The protesters also alleged that Sisodia called them agents of the BJP and refused to listen to their plea. Guest teachers’ contracts are renewed on yearly basis. Nearly 17,000 teachers are working in the Delhi Government schools on contractual basis. Some of them have been teaching in schools for more than 10 years. “We will not give jobs to such teachers who cannot write their name properly. What will they teach to students” Sisodia questioned while talking to a TV channel.
Accusing the Delhi Government of “running away” and adopting “unsympathetic approach” towards issues concerning guest teachers at public schools, the Delhi BJP has said it will take up the matter before lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung soon seeking his attention. “We condemn the Government’s unsympathetic approach towar-ds rightful demands of guest teachers who have been agitating for last two years seeking regularisation of their services. Until the other day, regularisation of Government jobs was crux of Arvind Kejriwal’s politics. But now the AAP is running away from its electoral stand. We will take up the issue with lieutenant-Governor,” Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay said.
Upadhyay targeted Sisodia saying the way the Deputy Chief Minister made the Delhi Police “arrest” agitating teachers trying to draw his attention towards their issues on Saturday, showed the Government’s “dual attitude”. “Over the last two months, as during their previous stint in Government in 2013, the Kejriwal dispensation has willfully neglected guest teachers’ issues and the way Sisodia made the police arrest protesters trying to seek his attention clearly shows the Government’s dual attitude,” he said.